Townsend was rarely troubled in the opening 45 minutes and there was nothing he could have done to keep out Scowen’s 25-yard strike.

He made a top one-on-one save to keep it to just one late on when Conor Washington was rushing through on goal.

On the change in ‘keeper, Heckingbottom admitted: “It’s a strange one. Ever since I’ve been in charge Davo has been the keeper.

“I felt it was time for Nick to come in to the side.

“I spoke to both players about it and I think in all honesty if I hadn’t worked with both players for so long and a new manager came in and took performances this season and training into account then Nick would have got his chance a lot sooner.

“He’s had to cope with that and as I’ve said this season in training he’s been fantastic.”

Barnsley need a win

There’s no shying away from the fact that Barnsley need a win and fast.

Their last victory came on New Year’s Day when they beat Sunderland, but they have yielded just one point since then.

Heckingbottom brought in six players during the January transfer window in the form of Moore, Dani Pinillos, Conor Mahoney, Christoph Knasmüllner, Mills and Oli McBurnie.

Five of those six, Knasmüllner aside, featured in one way or another at Loftus Road.

And those players, alongside the rest of the squad and Heckingbottom need to turn things around or they will be playing their football in League One next season.

The next four games see the Reds take on other teams in the bottom half and that chunk of games could define whether or not they go down.